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the  Class  of  1901 

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SLAVERY'S   LAST   WORD. 


DISCOURSE 


PREACHED  IN  THE  SOUTH  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH, 


MIDDLETOWN,   CT., 


ON  THE  SABBATH  MORNING  AFTER  THE 


%nnBnuMfin  of  f  r^^ihitt  l^inroht. 


BY 


JOHN  L.  DUDLEY, 


PASTOR   OF    THE    CHURCH. 


MIIDDLETOWN: 

D.    BARISTES, 

1865. 


MiDDLETOWN,  April  20tli,  1865. 
Rev.  J,  L.  Dudley, 


'J 


Dear  Si?- — "We  were  so  very  much  delighted  with  the  patriotic  and  truly 
Christian  sermon  you  preached  on  Sunday  morning  last,  that  we  are 
very  desirous  that  others  should  share  the  pleasure  it  afforded  us, 
and  at  the  same  time  profit  by  the  sound  doctrine  you  so  ably  sup- 
ported on  that  occasion.  This  induces  us  to  ask  a  copy  of  the  discourse 
for  the  press.     By  acceding  to  our  request,  you  will  very  much  oblige, 

Yours  Respectfully, 

BENJAMIN  DOUGLAS, 
A.  B.  CALEF, 
J.  N.  CAMP, 
M.  B.  COPELAND, 
C.  R.  OILMAN, 
a  H.  HULBERT, 
W.  W.  WILCOX, 
JNO.  M.  DOUGLAS, 
H.  S.  WHITE. 


MiDDLETOWN,  April  24th,  1865, 

Gentlemen — The  discourse  of  which  you  ask  a  copy,  was  purely 
extemporaneous,  spoken  at  the  solemn  call  of  the  hour. 

If  I  can  reproduce  it  in  manuscript  form,  it  shall  be  submitted  to  your 
discretion  at  my  earliest  convenience. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  L.  DUDLEY. 

To  Hon.  B.  Douglas,  Dr.  C.  R.  Oilman,  H.  S.  White,  Esq.,  and 
others. 


DISCOURSE. 


Isaiah,  24:  11. 

,'  all  joy  is  darkened;   the  mirth  op  the  land  is  gone. 

This  is  the  refrain  of  every  heart  in  this  tearful  pres- 
ence this  morning — the  speechless  lament  on  the  quiver- 
ing lip  of  the  whole  community — the  muffled  echo  of 
the  deep,  heavy  pulse  of  woe  that  throbs  at  the  heart  of 
the  nation. 

A  terrible  thing  has  come  upon  the  land! — an  awful 
darkness  suddenly  shrouded  it.  The  people  stand  chilled 
in  horror ! — pierced,  to  the  life,  by  an  unutterable  grief 
Mourning  is  everywhere — in  the  streets — in  the  air.  I 
hear  it  in  the  bell-toll, — see  it  on  the  mute  lip  of  these 
sable  drapings  of  woe.  The  light  of  the  blessed  morn- 
ing seems  charged  with  its  burden.  Not  only  is  it  in 
the  Capitol,  so  hushed  and  awe-stricken ;  but  by  every 
fireside  in  the  land — in  every  solitary  heart.  There  is 
no  tongue  to  speak  aught  else — there  is  no  ear  for  any 
other  word. 

Our  venerated  President  is  no  more !  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, the  wise,  the  pure,  the  noble,  the  true,  is  dead ! 


6 

Still  in  his  shroud  this  morning,  lies  the  Chief  Magistrate 
at  Washington.  He  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  on 
Friday  night,  in  an  hour  of  respite  from  crushing  care, 
unsuspecting  and  defenceless.  A  dastardly  fiend  in 
human  shape  slew  him.  The  mildest  of  men,  the  most 
lenient  of  living  rulers,  was  murdered,  deliberately  shot, 
while  in  company  with  his  family,  by  an  infamous  out- 
law, instigated  by  devils.  The  loved  and  trusted  leader 
in  our  troubles, — the  terror  of  rebels,  the  discomfiture  of 
treason, — fell  a  victim  to  the  foul  plot  that  has  been  seek- 
ing to  murder  the  nation  for  the  bloody  years  just  past. 
This  thing  is  a  crime  whose  baseness  language  lacks 
terms  to  name.  The  fiendish  purposes  that  inspired  it 
are  more  execrable  than  any  that  have  invoked  the  scorn 
of  mankind  in  our  past  history.  Ther^j  is  an  audacity  of 
infamy  in  it,  all  things  considered,  that  seeks,  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  a  parallel  in  vain.  Tyrants  have 
sometimes  quickly  gone  down,  because  they  were  tyrants. 
Grinding  vassalage  and  studied  cruelties  have  become 
their  own  executioners,  in  recoiling  vengeance  quickly 
meted  out.  But  here  comes  the  skulking  assassin  with 
his  cowardly  poniard  to  strike  at  the  heart  of  charity 
itself, — with  deadly  malice  he  comes,  aiming  at  a  life 
whose  forgiving  magnanimity  towards  blood-thirsty  foes, 
became  the  marvel  of  the  age, — with  fallen  hate  and  infer- 
nal inspiration  that  relieve  the  blackness  of  hell  itself 
This  is  the  last  lurid  flame  from  the  burnings  of  defeated 
treason,  the  mean  stab  in  the  dark  of  humiliated  inso- 
lence, the  final  desperate  deed  of  an  expiring  barbarism. 


And  as  if  this  were  not  enough  to  damn  to  eternal  infamy 
the  schemes  of  treason,  of  which  the  assassin's  deed  is 
the  black  culmination,  the  dastardly  creature  must  needs 
adorn  his  chivalric  tale  by  invading  the  sanctities  and  tear- 
ful assiduities  of  private  life,  skulking  under  the  cover  of 
night-time,  into  the  sick  chamber  of  a  wounded  and 
apparently  dying  man,  that  he  may  stab  his  body  there 
upon  his  bed. 

0  bright,  consummate  flower  of  heroic  stem ! — the  toil 
of  centuries  from  boastful  stock,  the  last  and  divinest  of 
heaven's  planting, — we  take  thy  blossom,  nay,  we  take  thy 
fruit,  and  in  the  alembic  of  God  untwine  the  dark  fibre 
of  thy  crimson  pedigree,  and  find  the  root  and  seed 
thereof  in  the  putrid  hell  of  Slavery !  Here  are  the 
dregs  of  the  elect  institution,  its  final  product.  Throw- 
ing aside  all  disguises,  it  presents  the  manhood  it  has 
been  able  to  produce  after  a  toil  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years^  a  finished  specimen  of  the  civilization  it  has 
commissioned  treason  to  establish  upon  the  ruins  of  your 
wise  and  beneficent  government. 

It  would  be  a  strange  forgetfulness  of  the  proprieties 
and  decencies  of  our  most  holy  religion,  if  we  should  fail 
to  bring  this  great  sorrow  to  its  altars  and  its  sanctuaries, 
and  here  bow  in  solemn  recognition  of  that  God  who 
thus  speaks  to  us  in  his  providence.  God  gives  us  our 
texts  from  that  scroll  which  he  is  unrolling  in  the  lives  of 
individuals  and  the  history  of  nations,  as  truly  as  from 
the  inspired  lips  of  Apostle  and  Seer.  An  offence  to 
heaven  should  we  be  this  morning,  were  we  to  shut  out 


8 

from  our  hearts  and  our  public  services  the  solemn  lesson 
which  comes  to  us  in  this  fearful  calamity.  The  people 
that  can  do  this,  and  then  seek  to  hide  their  dereliction 
behind  the  sacredness  of  the  day  and  the  place,  betray 
and  dishonor  the  very  God  and  religion  whose  name  they 
assume  to  bear.  The  nation  which  rules  God  out  of  its 
life,  and  shuts  the  door  in  his  face  as  he  comes  bringing 
sermons,  and  admonitions  and  solemn  lessons  to  its  faith, 
digs  its  own  grave.  Let  us  bring  this  mourning  to  our 
public  altars  and  into  our  closets ;  let  us  take  it  into  the 
holy  of  holies  and  ask  God  what  it  means.  We  invoke 
the  sprinklings  of  mercy  upon  these  tears,  that  there 
come  forth  healing  from  their  bitter  ministry.  We 
put  our  lament  into  psalm,  and  hymn,  and  prayer,  and 
reverent  speech  before  God, — till  the  judicial  darkness  be 
lifted  away. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  dwell  upon  this  diabolical 
crime  at  length  this  morning.  The  character  of  it  is 
infamous,  obviously.  At  this  moment,  as  the  news  just 
bursts  upon  us,  it  is  too  early,  in  advance  of  the  facts,  to 
set  forth  its  full  character,  in  all  the  dark  complications 
and  extensive  bearings  it  involves.  Waiving,  therefore, 
this,  which  will  claim  another  hour,  we  may  yield  to  such 
reflections  as  at  once  suggest  themselves. 

1.  And  fii'st,  we  note  the  contrast  between  the  emo- 
tions that  were  so  mighty  on  the  last  Sabbath,  and  the 
tides-  of  feeling  in  the  soul  still  more  mighty  to-day. 
Then  one  rushing  wave  of  joy  swept  over  the  nation; 


now  the  wave  comes  rolling  back,  changed  into  black- 
ness and  death,  and  we  are  drowned  in  woe.  One  short 
week  only  has  intervened.  In  common  with  all  the 
sanctuaries  of  the  land,  which  acknowledge  God  in  prov- 
idence, we  struck  our  notes  of  jubilee  and  thanksgiving 
unto  the  Ruler  and  Disposer  of  events,  that  the  defiant 
Rebel  Capital,  the  centre  and  symbol  of  the  whole  con- 
spiracy, had  fallen  !  Even  then,  in  the  sacred  hour  of 
our  joy,  the  main  army  of  the  insurgents  had  capitulated^ 
and  we  had  to  wait  only  till  the  morning  dispatches  for 
the  news.  The  death  knell  of  the  rebellion  was  then 
sounded.  Then  joy  shot  through  the  heart  of  the  peo- 
ple like  electric  fire.  It  leaped  in  every  pulse,  it  spar- 
kled in  every  suffused  eye.  Bells  rang  it  out,  flags  flung 
it  to  the  winds,  old  men  wept  it,  and  children  rushed 
from  the  school-house  delirious  with  the  sacred  ecstacy, 
into  the  streets.  The  long  woe  was  ending.  Congratu- 
lations re-clasped  the  brotherhood  of  patriotism,  and  told 
how  deep  and  dear  was  the  love  of  country.  We 
thought  the  war  was  over,  and  breathed  long  and  free 
again,  under  the  certain  prospect  of  peace. 

But  in  an  evil  hour,  in  the  twinkliug  of  an  eye,  the 
quick  contractile  heart  of  the  nation  leaped  in  one  con- 
vulsive rebound  of  agony,  and  stood  still,  transfixed 
with  horror !  The  light  elastic  pulse  of  joy  sunk  down 
to  the  deep,  heavy  throb  of  death.  The  land  was  dumb, 
the  people  staggered  to  and  fro  in  bewilderment,  the 
stoutest  were  stunned  and  speechless,  from  a  shocking 
and  overwhelming  crime,  unparalleled  in  the  deeds  of 


10 

darkness.  Men  were  appalled  and  stood  aghast  at  the 
murder  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation,  for  they 
knew  not  what  might  be  next.  Calamity  quickly  gave 
place  to  the  most  du'eful  apprehensions.  It  was  the 
grave  of  the  nation,  on  that  terrible  night,  that  seemed 
to  open  by  the  dead  form  of  its  Chief  There  is  a  pes- 
tilence that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  destruction  that 
wasteth  at  noon-day.  And  yet  these  are  pale  and  inef- 
fectual shades,  compared  with  the  dread  and  infamy  that 
deepen  the  dye  of  this  murderer's  deed.  In  life,  we  are 
ever  reminded,  we  are  in  the  midst  of  death.  The  bright- 
est hour  that  is  on  us,  may  be  already  laving  its  feet  in 
the  shadow  of  the  grave. 

2.     But  the  greatness  of  our  loss  presses  quickly  upon 
the  thought.     Aside  from  the  fact  that  the  assassin's  vic- 
tim is  the  President  himself,  the  ofi&cial  embodiment  and 
central  function  of  the  government ;  in  addition  to  the 
most  evident  truth  that  he  was  a  providential  man,  raised 
up  by  God  for  the  special  work  he  so  signally  performed, 
the  national  calamity  derives  additional  magnitude  from 
the  consideration  that  we  are  just  at  a  critical  turning 
point  in  the  fortunes  of  our  life-and-death  struggle  with 
treason — a  point  where  the  firmest  hand  and  the  steadi- 
est brain  are  required.     Just  in  the  height  and  power  of 
the  storm,  while  rocking  and  plunging  among  the  bil- 
lows of  its  fury,  the  military  power  of  the  rebellion  is 
seen  to  break  and  give  way,  and  a  new  point  in  our 
course  is  to  be  taken  among  the  shallows  and  rocks  of 


11 

political  issues.  Exactly  here  is  demanded  the  pilotage 
of  consummate  statesmanship.  The  strategy  of  treason 
in  diplomacy  is  more  perilous  than  the  strategy  of  trea- 
son in  arms.  In  the  first  the  Devil  is  at  home — in  the 
last  not  always.  Just  at  this  crisis,  with  his  grasp  firmly 
upon  the  vitals  of  the  monster  treason,  all  eyes  were 
eagerly  turned  to  the  glorious  leader,  whom  the  people 
had  learned  implicitly  to  trust,  and  whom  they  had  just 
re-consecrated  to  a  second  term,  for  the  finishing  up  of 
the  work  so  successfully  prosecuted.  He  was  to  estab- 
lish the  nation,  reclaimed,  regenerated,  upon  the  endur- 
ing foundations  of  order,  righteousness  and  peace. 

But  alas !  just  as  the  tide  was  turning,  the  strong  arm, 
the  cool  head,  the  great  true  heart,  are  stricken  down. 
This  morning  the  country  stands  aghast,  poised  and  per- 
illed on  the  giddy  edge  of  destruction!  Frightful  anar- 
chy stares  it  in  the  face !  Indefinite  shapes  of  horror 
haunt  the  apprehensions  of  every  soul.  By  the  turn  of 
an  hour,  all  government  may  cease  in  the  simultaneous 
destruction  of  its  co-ordinate  functions,  leaving  the  demon 
revolution  to  seize  and  bear  on  the  bloody  wreck  at  his 
will.  The  blade  of  the  assassin  flashes  out  from  the  dark- 
ness everywhere.  This  is  the  horror  that  freezes  all  life 
upon  the  instant.  And  yet  let  us  not  forget  that  there 
is  a  God  that  rules,  and  that  his  wisdom  is  mightier  than 
all  the  subtlety  of  murderous  fiends.  Even  here  it  is 
not  for  us  to  say,  that  the  springs  of  a  new  life  have  not 
been  already  touched,  and  of  a  new  dominion,  that  shall 
not  only  sink  beneath  the  wreck  of  his  own  infernal 


12 

schemes,  the  malign  foe  in  destruction  utter,  but  bear  the 
nation  on  to  a  deliverance  most  signal,  and  plant  it  in 
peerless  renown,  beyond  the  shock  of  treason  or  the 
machinations  of  alien  hate.  If  God  so  wills  it,  this  very 
peril  may  be  the  occasion  upon  which  the  hidden  safety 
shall  be  disclosed, — the  last  fiery  gateway  through  which 
our  hopes  pass,  into  security  and  strength  eternal. 

3.  But  count  it  no  strange  thing  that  this  deed 
of  darkness  should  have  been  committed  at  this  time. 
Why  not?  What  is  there  unnatural  about  it?  I  mean 
out  of  the  ordinary  connections  of  cause  and  effect?  An  ^ 
inspiration  that  is  infernal  enough  to  organize  a  conspir- 
acy to  overthrow  this  government,  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  on  its  ruins  the  odious  and  sodomizing  em- 
pire of  Slavery,  is  bad  enough,  and  mean  enough,  to  be 
a  cowardly  assassin.  A  purpose  that  is  born  of  perjury, 
baptized  in  treason,  and  confirmed  in  blood  and  murder 
as  its  sacramental  grace,  is  eligible  to  any  master  stroke 
in  the  dastard's  vocation ;  and  could  skulk  behind  your 
noble  President  and  shoot  him  without  a  warning,  as 
naturally  as  it  can  whip  its  helpless  women  and  sell  its 
own  children.  A  set  of  men,  an  institution,  a  cause,  base 
enough  to  fire  on  an  unarmed  vessel  bearing  supplies  to 
a  starving  garrison  of  its  own  government ;  base  enough 
to  starve  sixty  thousand  men  to  death,  or  idiocy,  as  a  mil- 
itary policy ;  base  and  barbarous  enough  to  carve  out  of 
the  bones  of  your  own  sons  trinkets  to  be  sported  by  the 
feminine  refinement  it  deifies ;  is  base,  and  barbarous,  and 


13 

fiendish  enough,  not  only  to  assassinate  the  most  estima- 
ble man  that  ever  adorned  the  magistracy  of  any  people, 
but  to  seek  the  couch  of  a  wounded,  helpless  Minister 
of  State,  for  the  sake  of  despatching  him  in  that  con- 
dition. 

When  you  count  up  the  tears  and  the  graves  of  the 
last  four  years,  it  will  appear  that  the  South,  in  this  rebel- 
lion, have  accomplished  something  ',  take  into  account, 
also,  what  I  have  already  suggested  as  characteristic  of 
their  civilization,  and  after  all  this,  it  was  not  to  be  doubted 
that  they  possessed  undeveloped  capacities.  While  my 
faith  has  not  wavered  for  a  moment,  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  nation  over  treason,  the  conviction  has 
nevertheless  haunted  me  from  the  first,  and  deepened 
day  by  day,  that  when  this  vaunting  insolence  should 
lick  the  dust  for  the  last  time,  it  would  signal  its  exit  by 
something  worthy  of  its  nature.  It  would  lay  in  ashes 
New  York  perhaps,  or  Boston,  or  Philadelphia,  or  Wash- 
ington; peradventure  all.  It  would  sack  your  towns 
and  villages ;  it  would  rob  the  graves  of  your  noblest 
heroes,  or  steal  your  little  children  from  their  cradles 
and  impale  them  upon  the  sharpened  limbs  of  trees,  like 
the  savages  of  the  olden  time.  Something  of  this  kind 
I  was  sure  would  be  done  to  immortalize  the  vaunted 
superiority  of  their  peculiar  civilization,  and  make  North- 
ern sympathizers  know  what  they  had  lost  by  the  failure 
of  secession. 

But  alas  !  not  even  from  such  dark  dyes  was  the  final 
picture  to  be  painted.     A  depth  of  coloring  must  yet  be 


X 


14 

brought  to  the  passing  panorama,  not  compassed.  In  the 
pit  of  hell,  where  the  anointed  villain  dipped  his  pencil 
on  that  tragic  night,  and  shouted  with  sulphurous  breath, 
'■'■Noio  is  the  South  avenged^''''  that  color  came,  and  the 
picture  was  done.  Treason  had  accomplished  now, 
something  luorthy  of  itself 

If  this  execrable  insurrection  needed  the  polishing 
and  the  setting  of  one  more  jewel  in  its  black  diadem  of 
infamy,  it  got  it  on  that  Friday  night.  If  no  prayer 
had  been  sufficient  to  invoke  the  scorn  and  contempt  of 
posterity  upon  the  ghastly  nakedness  of  Southern  barba- 
rism, the  prevailing  petition  went  up  that  night.  If  the 
high-born  chivalry,  and  boasted  heroism,  and  social  pre- 
eminence of  a  pitiable  slaveholding  oligarchy,  had  failed 
to  make  proof  of  themselves  in  the  clank  of  chains ;  in 
the  auction  block ;  in  the  cry  of  womanhood  from  out 
of  the  sacred  munitions  of  nature  ;  in  the  burning  of  black 
men  alive  for  amusement ;  in  the  bowie-knife  and  blud- 
geon on  the  floor  of  Congress;  in  damaged  Northern 
manhood  bought  and  sold  like  sheep  and  asses ;  in  the 
leprous  poison  injected  up  into  the  very  blood  of  reli- 
gion, whose  slimy  trail  is  even  now  visible  upon  our 
Northern  altars  ;  if  all  these  failed,  then  this  last  born  of 
the  patriarchic  civilization,  the  Benjamin  of  the  ^'divine'^ 
dynasty,  wipes  out  the  failure,  and  the  South  stands  vin- 
dicated under  her  own  self-pronounced  verdict !  That 
dark,  damning  night,  closed  the  testimony.  The  foul  lie 
of  the  nineteenth  century  which  puts  treason  for  loyalty ; 
slavery  for  liberty ;  insolence  for  a  gentleman ;  and  cattle 


15 

for  men ;  has  scored  its  name,  chronicled  its  achievements, 
recorded  its  defeat,  and  cnt  its  epitaph,  in  four  infamous 
words  :    Coivard^  Traitor^  Assassin,  Fiend. 

But  let  us  thank  God,  however  costly  the  gain,  for 
this  dying  confession  of  the  monster  Slavery.  We  now 
know  how  bad  it  is.  There  are  no  dis2:uiscs  after  this. 
The  pit  is  uncapped. 

4.  But  be  not  deceived.  This  atrocious  crime  is  no 
isolated,  personal  act.  Be  assured  that  it  has  wide  rela- 
tions, that  it  is  but  one  sign,  cropping  out  of  the  dark- 
ness, of  a  deep,  infernal  plot,  the  extent  of  which  no 
man  can  tell.  Waste  not  the  sum  of  your  indignation 
upon  the  poor  contemptible  tool  who  did  the  diabolical 
deed.  He  is  only  more  ostentatious,  but  not  more  con- 
temptible, than  any  other  tool  of  the  same  masters.  The 
fact  that  the  life  of  the  Secretary  of  State  was  attempted 
simultaneously  with  that  of  the  President,  is  a  significant 
suggestion  of  an  organized  scheme  to  take  the  lives  of 
many  men  in  high  places,  and  thus  paralyze  the  govern- 
ment. Be  not  surprised  if  ere  long  it  should  come  to 
light,  that  the  parts  had  been  already  assigned,  the 
victims  designated,  the  agents  secured  for  this  infernal 
work  of  a  general  massacre.  The  plot  is  Catilinian  in  its 
proportions.  The  base  men  of  the  Republic  are  in  it, 
the  Lucifers,  doubtless,  of  the  rebellion.  There  is  con- 
cert in  the  plan.  You  know  not  who  share  the  secrets. 
Whenever  you  find  sympathy,  apology,  connivance, 
indifference,  even,  towards  this  damning  deed,  open  or 


16 

disguised,  you  have  the  best  of  reasons  for  suspicion. 
It  is  not  certain  that  your  own  life  and  safety  are  beyond 
the  scope  of  these  hidden  designs.  The  master  fiend 
may  sit  at  the  centre  of  his  "  Golden  Circle,"  and  tele- 
graph instantly  his  infernal  purposes,  to  the  outermost 
fibre  of  his  web.  Any  man  who  is  bad  enough  to  take 
secret  pleasure  in  the  assassin's  work,  is  not  too  good  to 
be  held  responsible  for  it.  In  open  fight,  treason  has 
failed.  What  the  '•'■gentlemen''^  of  the  plantations  could 
not  do  by  armies,  they  will  now  seek  to  accomplish  by 
the  arts  of  villains,  cut-throats  and  outlaws.  It  is  in 
keeping  with  the  firing  of  Charleston  and  Richmond 
with  their  own  hands,  upon,  being  forced  to  surrender 
them,  thereby  causing  the  inhuman  sacrifice  of  unoffend- 
ing citizens ;  it  is  in  keeping  with  the  shipping  of  infected 
clothing  to  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  spreading 
deadly  pestilence  in  the  city  they  had  failed  to  burn. 
This  is  the  second  stage  of  the  war,  the  final  campaign 
of  the  Southern  Rebellion.  From  the  flourish  of  trum- 
pets under  which  it  marched  out  into  the  open  field, 
putting  its  own  life  into  the  wager,  and  purposing  to 
cover  itself  with  the  glories  of  victory  or  an  honorable 
grave,  it  has  sunk  to  the  secret  whisper  of  the  midnight 
assassin,  the  stealthy  tread  of  the  murderer  of  innocent 
and  defenceless  individuals.  This  is  the  final  chapter  in 
the  history  of  a  rotten  dynasty,  whose  boast  has  ever 
been  that  it  was  too  honorable  and  too  high-born  to  live 
with  the  men  of  the  North ;  the  final  act  of  a  bloody 
crusade,  whose  only  purpose  has  ever  been  to  rule  or 


17 

ruin.  Thank  God  that  you  have  stripped  it  of  its  masks, 
that  its  hideous  loathsomeness  has  at  last  been  dragged 
out  into  open  day. 

5.  Another  thing  I  think  we  may  be  ready  to  accept 
as  settled  by  this  bloody  tragedy,  and  that  is  :  there  is  to 
be  no  more  treason  at  the  Norths  spoken  or  acted.  This 
fiendish  stroke  of  perfidy  and  infamy,  the  cowardly 
assassination  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic,  is 
enough  to  seal  the  lips  of  any  man,  worthy  the  name  of 
American  citizen,  forever,  against  any  word,  or  even 
thought  of  sympathy  or  apology  for  the  purposes  or 
works  of  traitors  henceforth.  The  man  who  insults  an 
outraged  nation  hereafter  by  foul  treasonable  words  is 
not  fit  to  live.  The  man  who  at  the  North,  openly 
acknowledges  gratification  at  this  deed  of  devils,  is  no 
better  than  the  guilty  wretches  who  devised  and  exe- 
cuted it.  He  thereby  confesses  complicity  with  the  act, 
and  makes  himself  an  accomplice.  Such  a  man  is  enti- 
tled to  no  protection  at  the  hands  of  the  civilized  com- 
munity he  disgraces.  If  after  this,  there  be  anything 
along  your  streets  in  human  shape,  from  whom  self- 
respect,  long  steeped  in  sympathy  with  perjury  and  trea- 
son, has  so  far  perished  as  to  be  conscious  of  secret  grat- 
ification at  a  thing  so  vile,  then  let  him  not  complain 
that  he  is  branded  with  the  mark  that  so  justly  belongs 
to  him,  and  spurned  and  shunned  as  he  deserves  to  be. 
All  who  prize  decency  for  themselves  or  their  children, 
3 


18 

or  legard  such  wickedness  as  unfit  for  men,  will  be  swift 
to  escape  its  associations. 

Most  unquestionably  it  will  come  to  this.  Men  will 
be  proved.  The  eyes,  even  of  the  blind,  will  be  opened. 
From  this  hour  the  nation  must  be  purged.  No  party 
will  dare  identify  itself  with  such  infamy,  hoping  to  live. 
The  foulness  of  it  cannot  longer  find  harbor  in  the  folds 
of  any  institution.  No  trade  above  the  pirate's  policy, 
will  risk  the  damage  of  profiting  by  it ;  and  no  respect- 
able church,  standing  upon  a  higher  fidelity  than  neu- 
trality between  God  and  the  Devil,  will  give  it  asylum, 
or  be  dumb  in  its  presence.  Even  burglars  and  bloody 
eyes  of  the  ring,  will  feign  a  virtue  fairer  than  this  dark 
boast ;  and  only  what  needs  but  to  be  known,  to  be  out- 
lawed, and  exiled  from  men,  will  be  left  as  its  pitiable 
memorial.  Northern  sympathy  has  had  a  great  deal  to 
do  in  nourishing  this  viper's  fang  to  fatal  audacity.  It 
must  stop  here,  or  meet  the  doom  it  invokes. 

6.  And  so  must  ^ity  for  criminals  cease.  No  more 
wasted  tears,  cries  out  this  heart-blood  of  the  nation; 
no  more  misapplied  generosity  for  conquered  parricides ; 
an  end  to  false  leniency,  and  a  glossing  over  of  treason 
misnamed  magnanimity.  There  is  magic  force  in  the 
cry  of  magnanimity  to  the  fallen.  In  the  exultant  ebul- 
lition of  our  joy,  we  were  becoming  willing  to  connive 
at  wickedness  in  a  universal  pardon.  We  were  almost 
ready,  a  week  ago,  to  welcome  arch  rebels  to  princely 
ovations.     But  this  had  been  a  more  fatal  stab  at  the  vitals 


19 

of  the  nation  than  that  which  has  struck  down  our  glorious 
President.  False  compassion  for  criminals  is  a  premium 
upon  crime.  When  infamous  traitors  convulse  the  land 
in  civil  war,  and  stab  beneficent  government  for  ends 
more  odious  than  treason  itself,  and  then  are  permitted 
to  grace  your  hospitality  instead  of  the  gallows,  farewell 
to  all  order,  government  and  social  stability.  Mercy  was 
never  meant  to  betray  justice.  Justice  betrayed  is  rot- 
tenness in  the  bones  of  our  strength.  Treason  is  the 
highest  crime  named  in  our  civil  code.  To  wink  at  it  is 
to  crown  it.  Demoralization,  political  debility  and  death, 
will  strike  us  to  the  heart,  in  the  very  hour  of  our  vic- 
tory, if  we  are  to  pave  the  way  with  our  garments  and 
our  hosannas,  for  this  heaven-daring  crime  to  return  to 
the  embrace  of  our  fellowship.  We  become  the  traitors, 
— traitors  to  liberty,  to  man,  and  to  the.  eternal  sceptre, 
if  we  do  this. 

In  this  solemn  hour,  this  tearful,  heart-broken  hour  of 
the  nation,  I  seem  to  see  a  divine  intent  to  dry  up  all  foun- 
tains of  false  sympathy,  and  to  bring  the  laud  to  a  proper 
sense  of  duty,  that  it  may  be  snatched  from  a  defeat, 
more  ignominious  in  the  end,  than  that  by  cannon,  and 
sword,  and  fire.  Not  vengeance  do  we  hear,  but  a  truce 
to  all  parley  with  armed  treason,  with  skulking  assassins, 
perjured  villainy  and  bankrupt  honor,  crying  out  from 
the  now  still  lips  and  the  charity-loving  heart  of  the 
murdered  President  at  Washington. 


20 

7.     And  not  only  witli  armed  treason,  but  treason  dis- 
armed,  make   no   treaty.      Perjury    to-day    is  perjury 
to-morrow ;  treason  defeated  is  treason  still.     It  may  be 
held    in  subjection  by  tlie  strong   arm  of  powei',  but 
that  does  not  change  its  nature.     Let  it  be  defeated  in 
the  field,  it  will  exchange  the  thunderbolt  of  war  for  the 
knife  of  the  assassin.     Treason  and  perjury  are  the  wreck 
of  all  honor,  the  wreck   of  all  manliness.     The  high, 
noble  elements  of  humanity  are  degraded  by  these  crimes ; 
honor    perishes,    faith   perishes,    truth    perishes.     You 
cannot  trust  such  men.     When  the  traitor  comes  in,  the 
man  goes  out  forever.     The  apostle  was  no  longer,  after 
the  Judas  of  the  soul  took  the  throne.     Benedict  Arnold 
was   but  a   suicide's   epitaph,  wandering   through   the 
earth,  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  the  very  nations  he  had 
sold  himself  to.     The  fallen  genius  that  had  been  seeking 
to  murder  your  government  for  four  years  has  lost  none 
of  its  fell  animus  in  its  immediate  overthrow,  and  will  be 
just  as  ready  to  spring  its  mine  hereafter,  if  it  can  compass 
the  opportunity,  as  it  has  been  heretofore.     Its  purpose 
is  as  persistent  as  it  is  infamous  and  deadly.     If,  after 
to-day,  the  nation  can  be  deceived  by  the  falseness  of 
men  whose  deeds  and  purposes  have  earned  them  exemp- 
tion from  honorable  liabilities,  then  God  doubtless  will 
give  us  some  more  effectual  lessons;  for  we  will  yet  dare 
to  believe  that  he  has  designs  of  salvation  for  the  land. 

Such  are  some  of  the  more  obvious  suggestions,  arising 
out  of  this  shocking  wickedness,  upon  the  first  thought. 


21 

So  far  as  the  vile  purposes  of  treason  can  accomplish  it, 
law,  liberty  and  Christian  civilization  lie  dead  in  the 
Capitol  to-day,  stricken  down  by  an  assassin  more  base 
and  abhorrent  than  that  which  slew  Caesar  in  the 
Senate  House  of  Rome — foully  stricken  in  the  person  of 
the  Chief  Magistrate,  the  honored  head  of  devoted  mil- 
lions. Universal  Liberty  is  mourner.  A  thousand 
broken  shackles  and  countless  millions  of  bruised  hopes 
lie  bathed  in  tears  to-day.  So  far  as  man  can  accom- 
plish the  work  of  fiends,  arrayed  in  his  fallen  malice,  he 
has  done  it  in  this  sacrifice.  But  ah !  the  power  of 
man  is  limited ;  the  bounds  of  wrath  are  measured  and 
meted  out.  Treason  can  kill  the  body,  but  cannot  kill 
the  soul.  It  can  dash  to  dust  the  symbol  and  hide  it  in 
the  grave ;  but  after  that  treason  has  no  more  power. 
Liberty  herself  is  an  imperishable  inspiration  in  the 
world.  Truth,  like  its  author,  lives  forever.  Martyrs 
die,  but  principles  are  immortal.  The  Sanhedrims 
and  dynasties  of  hate  and  tyranny  spot  the  history  of  the 
world  with  their  black  records.  They  have  crucified  and 
buried  the  prophets  that  unsealed  the  purposes  of  eter- 
nity ;  and  suborned  the  powers  of  darkness  to  guard  the 
sepulchre's  mouth.  But  on  some  third  day  God's  angel 
unlocked  the  grave,  and  the  dead  came  forth  re-grasping 
the  fallen  sceptre,  thenceforth  to  rule  forever  more. 

In  the  light  of  the  past  I  seem  already  to  be  reading 
the  dark,  terrible  tragedy  that  spreads  gloom  over  the 
present.  The  death  of  the  Son  of  God  regenerated 
the  world,  and  founded  the  commonwealth  of  glory. 


22 

m 

From  his  tomb  sprang  forth  apostles  and  saintly  men, 
and  a  power  stood  npon  the  earth,  that,  in  this  bright 
century,  girdles  it.  The  haughty  arrogance  and  blind 
insolence  which  made  treason  their  ally,  and  hate  and 
lies,  for  the  death  of  God's  truth,  sleeps  in  contempt 
abiding. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  though  dead,  yet  lives  and  speaks, — 
lives  and  shall  live  so  long  as  goodness  has  a  name,  or 
nobleness  deserves  mention.  He  shall  live  in  the  fame 
of  the  country  he  has  saved  and  led  up  to  a  grandeur, 
peerless,  to-day,  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  He 
shall  live  in  the  grateful  homage  of  men  wherever  lib- 
erty is  spoken,  or  humanity  counted  sacred,  or  justice 
commands  reverence,  or  mercy  wins  a  tear.  He  shall 
live  in  true  nobility  of  manhood  yet  to  bless  the  future. 
So  long  as  God's  signet  and  sign-manual  shall  distinguish 
true  excellence  from  gilded  spuriousness,  and  hollow 
pretence ;  while  a  chain  clanks,  or  tyrant  remembers  hu- 
miliation, or  lives  to  hate  or  to  blush  in  retributive  shame, 
Abraham  Lincoln  shall  live  and  be  a  power  in  the  earth. 

If  he  had  done  his  work — -in  the  wise  counsels  of 
heaven  that  is  known — -if  the  day  and  the  destiny  were 
fulfilled,  it  were  well  done, — beautifully,  grandly  done. 
It  may  be  that  his  work  was  all  done.  God  permits  no 
instrument  to  be  laid  aside,  so  Ions:  as  it  is  needful  in  his 
plans.  The  renowned  Patriarch  and  Leader  of  old  stood 
upon  Nebo's  height,  and  there  in  bright  vision  saw  life 
completed,  crowned  by  memory  and  hope.  The  Moses 
of  our  Exodus  saw  the  nation  out  of  bondage,  past  the 


23 

river,  through  the  wilderness,  the  oppressor  dethroned, 
his  purposes  crushed,  the  arch  defiant  traitor  himself  lick 
the  dust,  and  then,  quickly,  from  the  pinnacle  of  victory, 
God  took  him  to  glory.  ^ 

It  may  be  that  the  nation  needed  a  tonic  just  here. 
Success  has  its  dangers,  as  well  as  failures.  A  deep, 
uncontrollable  impulse  of  joy  sometimes  debilitates.  We 
were  possibly  in  danger  of  sliding  down  from  that  tone 
of  judicial  vigor  essential  to  carry  through  to  a  most 
healthful  completion,  the  interests  of  law,  government 
and  civilization  we  had  undertaken  to  maintain.  Mean- 
ness and  treachery  had  dared  our  patriotism  and  heroism 
to  meet  them  in  the  field.  They  were  defeated.  It  may 
be  that  we  needed  still  to  be  stung  into  a  full  sense  of 
how  dark  and  how  damnable  this  accursed  hate  of  treason 
is ;  how  utterly  false,  infernal  and  persistent  in  its  nature ; 
and  that  in  this  one  fell  stroke  of  its  blind  despair,  God 
has  permitted  it  to  sign  its  own  death-warrant,  and 
brought  the  sense  of  the  nation  to  an  executive  efficiency 
that  shall  stand  and  do  its  appointed  work.  The  day  of 
reprieves  and  of  commutations  is  past.  The  heart  of  the 
lamented  President  was  devising  liberal  things,  even  for 
outlaws.  They  killed  him.  They  have  invoked  another 
judge;  let  them  abide  their  choice.  If  it  be  the  will  of 
Heaven  now  again,  as  once  it  was,  that  the  Canaanite, 
the  Hittite,  the  Amorite  and  the  whole  tribe  of  political 
Ishraaelites  be  utterly  and  forever  exterminated  from  the 
land,  let  that  appointed  work  be  done. 

So  let  there  be  no  misgiving.     Stand  firm  beneath  this 


24 

shock  as  under  others.  God  has  helped  us  hitherto.  The 
wrath  of  man  can  praise  hitn;  after  that  it  shall  be 
stayed.  When  the  stunning  of  the  blow  shall  have 
passed,  and  time  shall  wipe  away  the  blinding  tear,  we 
shall  perceive  that  this  last  and  most  precious  blood  has 
cemented  the  nation.  Having  done  all,  stand;  and  have 
faith  to  accept  it,  that  out  of  the  mortal  weakness  of  that 
fearful  Friday  night,  shall  be  born  a  strength  for  us  ma- 
jestic as  God.  Ponder  this  inscrutable  thing,  asking 
God  what  it  means.  This  at  least,  and  first  of  all  it 
means ;  turn  to  high  heaven ;  put  not  your  trust  in  princes. 
Cling  to  the  higher  arm  with  more  vigor  and  persist- 
ence than  ever.  When  the  mighty  fall,  it  is  that  He 
may  have  a  place.  Nations  come  to  no  crowns  more  than 
souls  in  light,  save  through  their  crosses.  Receive  the 
mantle  of  the  God-fearing  and  the  God-strengthened 
ruler,  as  it  falls  from  his  ascending  life ;  take  the  color 
of  the  fallen  standard-bearer,  and  with  his  own  name 
blazing  on  it,  bear  it  to  the  heights  of  victory,  unsullied 
as  his  own  pure  love  of  country,  mankind,  and  his  God. 
Violent  as  is  the  thought  upon  the  bosom  of  our  heart- 
broken sorrow  to-day,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  there 
is  jubilee  to-day  also.  It  is  where  mad  spirits  strike  a 
new  key  in  their  hellish  wails  of  discord  and  blasphemy. 
It  is  where  the  damned  congregate  for  despatches  from 
their  accomplices  in  this  world.  Their  black  flags  go  up, 
and  their  fallen  breath  fumes  up  with  sulphurous  delight. 
Or  wherever,  on  earth  or  in  infernal  regions,  depraved 
spirits  hold  carnival  over  deeds  of  infamy,  there  at  least 


25 

is  secret  satisfaction, — the  leer  malign,  and  putrid  gloat 
of  heart,  if  not  of  lip.  In  the  sultry  air  of  many  an 
injured  life,  many  a  damaged  soul,  where  native  sweet- 
ness has  long  since  perished,  and  flowers  of  beauty  have 
forgotten  to  bloom,  the  dews  of  sympathetic  treason 
have  deposited  themselves,  and  the  stench  of  this  horri- 
ble murder  rises  as  a  grateful  incense.  To  the  honor  of 
human  nature  be  it  said,  there  can  be  found,  even  in  the 
South,  men  in  whom  this  taint  of  moral  prostitution 
does  not  exist.  There  are  some  rebel  uniforms  even, 
that  would  scorn  to  embosom  it.  How  infinitely  more 
contemptible  then,  is  an  un-uniforined  man,  if  he  be  in 
your  own  community,  sufficiently  on  the  grade  of  such 
deeds  to  find  pleasure  in  them.  Men  sometimes  lose  the 
grace  of  hypocrisy.  It  would  seem  that  considerations 
of  decency  and  prudence  might  lead  them  to  disguise 
their  shame,  if  not  for  their  own  sakes,  certainly  for  their 
children's.  And  yet  there  is  a  terrible  chemistry  in  the 
providence  of  God,  which  not  only  liberates  and  lets  up 
into  sunshine  and  bloom  the  hidden  sweetness  of  society, 
but  no  less  certainly  precipitates  to  the  bottom  the  dark 
feculent  sediment  circulating:  therein.  Aside  from  this 
last  element,  the  assassin's  deed  will  find  no  affinities. 
So  even  here  the  interests  of  truth  are  subserved. 

It  is  a  grateful  mitigation  of  this  sore  affliction,  that 
wherever  there  is  anything  noble  and  true,  and  pure 
to-day;  any  high  sentiment  surviving  the  wrecks  of 
honor  and  faith ;  anything  strong,  elevated,  incorruptible 
in  man,  lofty,  pure  and  beautiful  in  woman,  there  are 


26 

tears  and  woes,  and  sobbing  laments.  Our  broken  joys 
seem  mended  in  part  when  the  good  mourn  with  us. 
Virtue,  Religion,  Patriotism,  Humanity,  drop  the  signs 
of  mirth  and  gladness,  and  put  on  the  weeds  of  woe  this 
hour.  The  nation  is  in  tears.  The  country  is  heart- 
broken. The  homes  of  the  people  feel  bereavement,  per- 
sonal, touching,  and  they  are  still.  The  lowly  and  the 
down-trodden  lay  their  own  heart  upon  the  bier  of  the 
good  man,  and  millions  from  the  wailing  and  praying 
nations  afar,  fling  their  withered  hopes  upon  the  cold 
form  of  him  they  had  learned  to  love  and  had  crowned 
with  their  homage.  And  history  stands  ready  to  sprinkle 
these  sorrows  at  her  hallowed  fountains,  and  inurn  the 
name  of  the  remarkable  man,  whose  fall  is  this  day  the 
nation's  lament. 

There  is  one  group,  one  home,  one  heart,  of  woe  at 
the  Capitol  this  morning,  from  which  we  may  not  lift  the 
curtain,  by  even  the  tenderness  of  our  bleeding  sympa- 
thies. The  God  of  all  mercy  still  the  storm  there,  and 
hide  beneath  his  own  blood-sprinkled  compassion, 
anguish,  unspoken  and  unspeakable,  till  the  night  be 
over  past ! 

From  this  bridal  of  blood,  may  the  land  come  forth, 
wedded  to  a  future,^  whose  glory  shall  stand  pledged  to 
chisel  in  eternal  scorn,  the  infamy  that  has  caused  this 
great  sacrifice  ;  and  fling  back  from  its  starry  crown  a 
radiance  that  shall  burn  as  heaven's  diadem,  upon  the 
brow  of  him  who  ushered  in  the  auspicious  day,  at  the 
price  of  his  own  life. 


27 

In  this  solemn  hour,  trembling  on  the  dim  line 
between  the  perils  of  the  past  and  the  perils  of  the 
future,  may  the  nation  take  the  great  hand  of  God,  and 
through  a  trust  deeper  than  ever,  be  enabled  to  say : 
"Thy  will  be  done."  The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  earth 
rejoice.  Standing  beside  her  murdered  President,  may 
she  look  up  and  say:  "Help,  Lord,  when  the  godly 
cease,  when  the  f^iithful  fliil  from  among  the  children  of 
men.  Raise  up  the  strong  and  the  wise  that  shall  take 
the  place  of  fallen  leadership, — the  true,  the  mighty  and 
the  God-fearing,  who  shall  take  thy  hand,  0  King  of 
kings,  and  go  forward  in  this  way  without  faltering. 
Stand  by  Jiim  upon'  luhom  the  cares  and  burdens  of  a 
nation  noiv  fall  first  ^  and  if  there  be  infirmitij  still  lin- 
gering near  him^  touched  by  the  potent  spell  of  this  hour, 
grant  that  it  flee  forever  awayy 

It  is  an  hour  for  vows,  an  hour  for  solemn  consecration 
to  duty;  for  the  joining  of  hands;  for  the  taking  of  the 
sacrament  of  a  new  gospel  of  civil  liberty.  We  stand 
not  upon  thresholds  of  weakness,  friends,  but  of  power. 
This  terrible  violence,  if  we  read  by  God's  light,  opens 
the  gates  of  sublime  opportunities.  A  new  era  dawns. 
The  war  is  ended  doubtless.  From  this  moment  we  have 
new  work  to  perform,  and  need  the  stimulus  of  new  and 
peculiar  inspirations.  I  think  they  come  dashing  upon 
us  in  the  waves  of  this  terrible  outrage.  Hereafter  lib- 
erty, and  Christian  civilization  in  its  largest  sense,  will 
bring  into  their  service  new  allies.  Our  countrymen 
know  better  to-day  the  difficulties  they  are  to  encounter 


28 

in  accomplishing  the  work  providence  has  committed  to 
their  hands.  American  civilization  must  stand  upon 
Man,  as  man, — his  rights,  privileges  and  duties,  and  not 
upon  classes  and  castes.  It  must  work  by  hope  more 
than  by  memory ;  laying  its  foundations  deep  in  the  light 
and  truth  of  eternal  principles,  rather  than  in  the  muta- 
ble quicksands  of  accident  and  prerogative. 

Take  the  cup  of  chastening  then,  with  the  cup  of 
blessing.  Thank  God  for  what  will  ever  be  a  nobleness 
and  a  tenderness  in  the  nation's  memory.  Ere  another 
Sabbath  shall  come,  we  shall  follow  all  that  is  mortal  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  tomb.  His  countrymen,  in 
common  with  great  multitudes  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  waiting  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise, 
toiling  for  the  triumph  of  great  and  beneficent  principles, 
wherever  man  has  an  abode,  will  go  to  their  work  more 
hopefully,  and  gather  fresh  inspiration  and  faith,  as  they 
shall  stand  in  the  days  to  come,  by  the  grave  of  the  great 
Emancipator. 

Men  die,  but  nations  live,  and  duty  is  eternal.  We 
bid  farewell  to  the  earthly  life  of  the  man,  who  had  lived 
to  earn  the  heart  of  an  empire.  In  the  wonderful 
methods  of  God,  an  imperishable  grief  must  be  fertile, 
not  sterile.  The  mellow  days  will  come,  following  this 
sharp  poignancy,  in  which  shall  begin  to  bud  and  bloom 
forth  the  deep,  hidden  meaning  of  this  inscrutable  hour. 
Its  fruit  shall  be  perennial,  gladdening  the  hearts  of 
unborn  millions,  as  the  ages  roll  down  their  circuits,  and 
goodness  brings  stars  to  her  crown. 


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